What Do I Do If I Can’t Understand Someone's Accent?

Nov 1

Recently I was coaching a non-native speaker of English and he told me, “I don’t get it. My colleague told me my pronunciation is bad and that I should enunciate more, but my friends tell me that I sound fine. Now I don’t want to speak up at work.”

Many multilingual employees feel anxious about presenting and talking during meetings. They fear judgement by their colleagues and peers. And this makes sense. Who wants to feel embarrassed or ashamed for how they speak? Simultaneously, many native English speakers are at a loss for how to respectfully seek clarification and learn to listen to colleagues with different accents.

Here are five steps for native English speakers to learn how to communicate with a non-native English speaking colleague, client, or contractor to ensure that speech difference doesn’t get in the way of your collaboration.

1) Check Your Biases

If someone grows up in one region, they will most likely always have an accent from that language and region.The subtleties of dialects are endless, and mastering them perfectly is almost impossible. Just think how difficult it is for you to pronounce some of your colleagues’ names correctly.

When listening to a non-native English speaker, notice where your mind goes. Are you having difficulty focusing, following along, understanding? Are you feeling frustration or anger? This is normal. As humans, we’re programmed to have strong preferences for what we already understand. When communicating with a non-native speaker, these biases might kick in if the information is critical or time sensitive.

If this is the case, trust that though what you are hearing might not sound like the English you’re used to, you can learn to understand it. With time, patience, and determination, your mind will pick it up. Understanding accents is a learnable skill. I listen to clients with accents all the time. I can understand them because I want to understand them. I focus, sometimes get confused, ask questions, and move on. It’s like every other conversation I have throughout the day.

2) Seek Clarification

If you are having trouble understanding a non-native speaker of English, the kindest thing you can do is to ask clarifying questions. Don’t pretend to understand, nod your head and smile, joke about it, or tease them. This is both unprofessional and unhelpful.

Here are some ways to respectfully seek clarification:

Paraphrase: “If I understand you correctly, you are saying…?
Ask for an example: “Do you have an example?”
Ask to repeat: “Can you say that one more time, more slowly?”
Ask for spelling: “Will you please spell that word for me?”

If you don’t say something, they won’t know. If it’s critical to the meeting’s success, ask for clarification in real time — even if it’s in front of colleagues. But, if it’s not critical, wait until the end of the meeting. With good intentions and creativity, you will get the information you need to move your projects forward.

3) Ask for Consent to Give Feedback about Language

Don’t say this, especially in front of colleagues:

“Yesterday during our meeting you shared the update on project X, but I had trouble understanding the steps in the process. If you spoke more clearly, everybody on the team would understand.”

This feedback is unhelpful and demoralizing. Instead, after a meeting or presentation, ask your colleague if they want feedback on how they said something. If you get a no, let it go. If you get a yes, share with your coworker how you would have said it. This is helpful and supportive.

Pro-Tip: If you are communicating virtually, make sure everybody has their camera on. Seeing gestures and facial expressions can support spoken communication. Of course, bandwidth speeds across the globe are not consistent, so be considerate here.

4) Get It In Writing

Practically speaking, if you have checked your biases at the door, you’ve sought clarification and given feedback, and you still can’t understand your coworker, seek understanding through writing.

If it’s a client, contractor, or cross-functional team member, after each in-person or virtual conversation, send an email summarizing the exchange, not only keep a record, but also to check for misunderstandings. If it’s a colleague in a meeting, ask the team if they could make it a policy to take notes in a shared doc. In this doc, you can gauge whether the communication during the meeting was successful, or where the gaps in understanding are.

5) Suggest Communication Coaching and Workshops to your Employer

The truth is, everybody has room to grow when it comes to speaking skills. Individual or small group coaching is the best way to help non-native speakers gain confidence in their communications skills.

The best communication workshops create a space for all employees to practice together and get to know one another’s strengths and weaknesses. Train your ears to hear accented English. And remember, your colleague does not have to talk the way you do to make a valuable contribution to the conversation.

Read our article Growing Globally? 5 Ways To Level Up Your Intercultural Communication at Work